


Turquoise Silk

by Infiniteleft



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Alternate Universe - AI, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hair Brushing, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27741754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infiniteleft/pseuds/Infiniteleft
Summary: It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Kudos: 8





	Turquoise Silk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scarletfennix](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=scarletfennix).



> ...featuring dubious computer science! Because I actually don't remember how cycles work in detail, so we're just making this up, alright.

The corridor she walked through shimmered, bright streaks of data passing by her eyes. On, off, on, off, clicking millions of times before a human could even blink. If she looked at her hands, she could see the faint pulse of her own. In these halls, she wasn't solid in the way her humans thought she'd be, but that was part of the fun. In a snap, she could change whatever she wanted…

Reaching out across the passage walls, she nudged her host. Click. It recognized her. Click. It recognized her request. Click. And so it was.

* * *

"Ah, so let me see if I understand… you… decided to give yourself your hair back?"

In hindsight, though her body may not have been "real" in the way humans thought of it, her actions still had consequences. Especially so when she steps outside of those magical, magical pathways and into what she liked to think of as a digital reality. All of it was real to her, admittedly, but some things had to be kept simple.

Unfortunately, simple did not include hair care. Crossing her arms, Miku averted her gaze with a sharp huff, electing to ignore the way the handle of her hairbrush smacked into her cheek. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," she grumbled.

"I'm not saying it wasn't," Kaito raised his hands in a placating manner, "just that… you don’t remember how to take care of all of it?”

“I don’t remember how to tie a tie, either, so sue me.”

He blinked, and Miku could  _ swear _ she saw the confusion running in his head. It was also evident on his face, of course, but he was trying to hide that, at least. Tsk. Maybe he ought to work on not being so obvious. A couple of clicks and seconds later, he sighed. “Here, why don’t you sit down. I’ll help you with it.”

“You don’t have to?”

“I don’t,” he acknowledged, stepping around to pull out a chair from her desk. “But I’d like to, if it doesn’t bother you? That can’t be comfortable.”

With a huff, she dropped herself into the chair.

Then stood up. Held her hair out away from her. And then sat down again. She elected to ignore the dubious look Kaito had given her in favor of staring intently at the wall, as if it held the answer to all of her problems.

The skin on the back of her neck tingled as her hair was moved, barely brushed by her friend’s hands. One pigtail was gently placed over her shoulder with a soft instruction to hold it in place, while the other, hair-brush ridden one, was inspected. In the silence, she could hear the gentle rusling of her hair as he poked through it. “Goodness, Miku,” he murmured, “how long has it been like this?”

She kept her gaze on the wall. Was it just her imagination, or did the paint seem to be shifting colors? It wasn’t much, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Hot shame curled in her chest, and she wished once again that she hadn’t been given these messy emotions. Stupid humans and projecting their reality onto concepts like her… “Um. Like this?”

“Like this.” Her only comfort was that he didn’t really seem to be judging her…

“Um… maybe a, um…” She descended into mumbling, picking at the specks of electricity caught in the tangles. 

“Hm?”

“A couple days…”

He sighed quietly, leaning around to pick up her other brush. “Miku, there’s no shame in asking for help.” Gently, he laid a section against his arm, and began brushing it out. She winced at the sound of the bristles catching on all the snarls -- but somehow, it didn’t hurt. So focused on her aching pride, she almost didn’t notice that he started speaking again. “It all builds up if you try to do everything by yourself, you know. Even little things like this.”

“I know,” she whined, “I know. It -- ow -- it only got away from me. I’m sorry.”

Even though, from the sound of it, Kaito was very insistently brushing through the snarls, there was still almost no yanking going on. To her surprise. She tried to twist around to see what kind of sorcery was going on, but he just moved with her. “Stay still,” he chided before returning to the matter at hand, which was her non-matter mats. “You don’t have to apologize, Miku, it’s not exactly… it’s not so much you did something wrong you need to worry about. Please, just take care of yourself more, is all I’m trying to say. Even if it means asking someone to help you out.”

She turned back with a sigh. “Yeah. So, speaking of… do you know how to, um, doatie?”

“Do what?”

“A tie.”

There was an audible pause. “...did you forget how to do one?”

“Maybe.” Hadn’t she already told him that? 

A moment passed before she heard a small huff, and those short, careful strokes resumed once more. “I can try, at least.” 

Miku leaned back in the chair, once again inspecting the snarls of her other twintail. Casually, she picked out a gleaming sparkle and looked at it. A useless bit of data she picked up from somewhere, perhaps? She flicked it away, watching it disappear. Huh. Well, it could be cleaned up later. “I guess that’s good enough.”

“Of course it is! All we can do i--”

“Nii-san, please don’t.”

“I can leave, if my positivity bothers you so much.”

A mock gasp, and she whipped her head around and  _ ow _ . “How dare you! Who else is going to put up with my maintenance? My demands?”

He shrugged, and reached for the brush again, caught as it was in the tangles she’d pulled away from him. If she hadn't been so distracted, she might've picked up on his unease before. As it stood, however, she noticed a small flicker in his form, too fast for her to identify the change exactly. She blinked, worried that she’d somehow upset him. But why? What about that could’ve struck a nerve?

“I don’t know,” he interrupted her thoughts, oblivious to her concern. “Luka might.”

“Luka would eat me if I asked her.”

“Meiko?”

“She would also eat me.” Miku nodded solemnly, turning her head back around, wincing at the noise the brush made. Kaito disentangled it from her hair again. “But she might help.”

Just maybe... Meiko was hard but kind, her wisdom taking the form of a lot of yelling more often than not. While she’d be willing to brush her hair out maybe once, if Miku gave her enough puppy eyes, she’d be lectured for it. But it would still be nice to have her running the brush through her hair… how she missed this, even if it -- ow -- was as much pain as it was pleasure.

A soft laugh came from behind her. “For sure, for sure.” How had he gotten so far already? She could feel his hands hovering near her shoulder blades, slowing down. The strokes weren’t as frequent as they had been, and instead they faded into a slow rhythm that slowly grew longer and longer. “You could go ask her, then. She wouldn’t give you -- what was it you called it? Moral lessons?”

“Yeah,” she noted, “but she’d just yell at me to not let it get like this again. Maybe later. You’re the best choice right now.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Well, Rin would laugh, Len would make fun of me, Luka would eat me, like I said, so would Meiko, and that leaves you. You’re not judgy, only really, really, really, uh… I dunno.” She scratched her cheek, trying to think of an appropriate word. “You just say things like ‘remember to take care of yourself’ in a really sad tone of voice that, by the way, is kinda concerning? Are you okay?”

“I--” There was another distinct pause, and she tilted her head back to see the utterly baffled look on his face. “Do I really sound upset?”

“Kinda?”

She watched him look off to the side, as if puzzling over the abrupt tone shift. Wow, she actually hadn’t ever really noticed how much he showed his thoughts like that… that was, quite possibly, the worst poker face she’s ever seen. And she’s seen a lot of bad poker faces.  _ Looking at you, Gumi _ . “Huh…” Kaito interrupted her train of thought with a quiet noise. “I don’t -- I’m not -- nothing’s wrong, as far as I know.”

“You sure?” While it was true that he didn’t make a habit of lying to people, least of all her, she  _ also _ knew he might’ve had a little bit of a problem with not realizing something was bothering him until the last minute, when it was all over.

“Mmmh.” He nodded. “I suppose I just worry about everyone. And you in particular.”

“Wh-- huh? Why?” That was news to her. As far as she knew, she’d never really had any sort of big issue that would’ve given him cause to worry.

Kaito shifted a little tensely, turning his attention back to rescuing her current hairstyle. “Well,” he began, quiet and focused. “You work very hard to make everyone happy, even if it’s a large burden to you to do so. It’s admirable, but, ah… we’ve all noticed you don’t always keep an eye out on yourself, you know.” She did not know. He continued, oblivious to that revelation. “To be honest, it’s partly why I was so surprised when you said you did this on -- on a whim. You’re not impulsive about yourself like that.”

“I -- wha…?”

He seemed a little flustered and sheepish, and shook his head, dipping it a little lower. “Ah, that was a ramble, wasn’t it? You, ah. Hm. In short, you don’t think of yourself as much as you do others, which, of course, is a good thing, but you don’t always tend to your own needs, Miku. Like this,” a vague gesture to her hair, “is one example of it. You don’t always ask for help, and when it’s offered, you don’t always accept it. It’s a little concerning sometimes!”

Miku fell silent as she processed everything he’d just said. Had she really -- was she really like that? It made an uncomfortable amount of sense, but… well, dang, he was onto her, wasn’t he? Too close for comfort. She dodged answering. “And everyone else?”

A soft sigh. “Rin and Len both don’t know how to not antagonize people, Luka’s too proud and shy at the same time, and Meiko…” He grimaced.  _ Oh. _ Oh she didn’t like that, nor did she like how he didn’t finish his sentence and only shook his head in what she could only guess was worry? Distress?

“Yeah,” she noised, turning her attention back to the wall. It seemed to shake before her eyes, and for a second she wondered if she’d accidentally managed to damage the room setup. With a start, however, she realized that it was not that -- touching her face gave her a sense of dampness. Huh. That couldn't be right. Not at all. Was she -- no. She willed it away with a soft laugh. “Huh. So what’s your deep secret, then?”

“Mine?”

“Yeah, yours.” Miku waved her hand in a nonchalant manner. “You’ve got the rest of us psychoanalysed, so what’s your thing? Don’t tell me you haven’t given it some thought.”

For a moment, there was no response and Miku wondered if she’d pushed beyond a boundary. Okay, it was time for her to think about changing the subject completely-- wait, no, he was talking. “Ah, no, that’s easy. No self esteem, but we all know that. It’s not much of a secret.”

What.

She craned her head around, ignoring his protest as it once again dragged the brush away from his grasp. “Are you serious?”

“Miku, hold still!” Frustration was a little more evident now, though it could’ve also been exasperation? Nerves? Something along those lines. Either way, she knew evasion when she saw it, so she obediently turned back to where she’d been before. The handle of the brush met his hand with a sharp ‘tock’ and grumble. After a moment, however, she noticed he made no further move. A brief flash of worry bit through her. Had he left? She opened her mouth, fully ready to speak to nothing but the empty bytes left behind.

A hand settled atop her head and she stilled. “Did you not know that?” He asked her in a hushed tone, but one that didn’t sound as bad as she thought it was going to. No, it had returned to that patient, gentle intonation that he often got when thinking about something completely different.

“No. I mean, I kinda thought you might, but -- ugh, it’s just weird to hear you say it like that, I guess. Like I should be worried about it or something cause otherwise you’re just repressing it when we’re not looking. I dunno. It’s weird.”

“Yeah, well,” there was a quiet chuckle and somehow the tension in her chest eased. “Emotions are supposed to be like that, so I’ve heard. Humans are strange, aren’t they? Then again, so are we. As far as I know, we’re supposed to be talking about fun, personal things when we’re having bonding time, aren’t we?”

“And that worked out so well for us,” she panned.

“It usually does!” His hand dropped. “So how do you feel now?”

She blinked, looking back at him. “Huh?”

"Take a look." Carefully, Kaito spun her chair around and pushed her closer to her vanity, where her simulated reflection stared back at her -- perfectly neat and silky hair in her twintails. Stunned and disbelieving that he could've brushed it all out so fast, she turned her head, running her fingers through… and it was smooth. No tangles.

"Wh-- huh? How--"

She watched Kaito leaned down to rest his chin on her head. "You forgot something else, Miku." An amused smile pulled at his lips as she gaped. What was this sorcery? "We're not human. You can just… wish your hair to however you want to to be. It just takes a couple seconds."

Miku's hands hit her lap with an alarming speed. "So you're telling me, all this time, I could've just--"

"You could've. But that's okay, we all have those moments. It's an excuse to spend time together, though, wouldn't you say?" He straightened up, patting her shoulder. "Come on, why don't we go bother the others?"

She stood up, waving away her embarrassment. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Hey, imagine if I show up without my hair. Think Len would freak?"

Kaito gave her a strange look. "Len, no. Meiko, yes. She'd kill you and we wouldn't find a body."

"Boo, so what am I gonna do? He's already gotten everyone else this week!"

"Well, you _could…_ "


End file.
